Your daily vegetarian recipes

Restaurant style Chana Masala | Chickpeas Masala | Chole Masala

Chana Masala | Chole Masala is a flavorful, spicy and tasty dish of North Indian cuisine available in all Indian restaurants and street style chaat shops. It is made with boiled chickpeas in tangy tomato and onion gravy. It is served as side dish for roti, puri and pulao varieties. It is also used in making popular chaat recipes like bread chana, samosa chana, cutlet chana etc. Come, let’s see how to make this most popular recipe at home with easy method and step by step pictures.

Author: PRIYA SRINIVAS

Category: Vegan

Cuisine: North Indian

Soaking time: Overnight

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

To pressure cook:

White Chickpeas/ Chana- 1 cup

Water- 1.5 cups

Salt- 1/2 tsp

To saute and grind:

Oil- 2 tsp

Cinnamon- 1/2 inch piece

Cardamom- 1

Cloves- 2

Fennel seeds- 1 tsp

Onion- 1

Green chilli- 3

Tomato- 3

Boiled chana- 3 tbsp

For gravy:

Oil- 2 tbsp

Onion- 1/2

Tomato- 1

Ginger garlic paste- 1 tbsp

Salt- as required

Turmeric- 1/4 tsp

Salt- as required

Red chilli powder- 1.5 tsp

Chana masala- 1.5 tsp

Lemon juice- 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves- 2 tbsp

To garnish:

Finely chopped onion- 2 tbsp

Lemon wedge- 1

Coriander leaves- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. To soak: Add 1 cup of chickpeas/ chana in a vessel and add 2 cups of water. Close the vessel and allow to soak overnight. The next morning you will observe that the chana has absorbed water and increased in size.

2. Discard the existing water and add 1.5 cups of water to it along with salt and pressure cook for 5-6 whistles until the chana is soft. Strain the chana to separate the water into a bowl and this water will be used in the gravy.

3. Preparation: Chop the onions, tomatoes and coriander leaves finely and slit the green chillies and set aside.

4. Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan and add cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and fennel seeds. Add the onions and green chillies and saute until golden.

5. Add tomatoes and cook till soft. Cool down completely.

6. Grind the onion- tomato spices along with 3 tbsp boiled chana into fine paste and set aside.

7. Heat 2 tbsp oil in the same pan and add onions and saute till golden.